After the tremendously successful 2000 and 2003 top security tools surveys, we are pleased to release our 2006 results at a brand new site: SecTools.Org. A record 3,243 Nmap users responded this year. Notable trends since 2003 include the rise in exploitation frameworks such as Metasploit, Impact, and Canvas; the increased popularity of wireless tools such as Kismet and Aircrack. 44 tools are new to the list. Security practitioners are encouraged to read the list and investigate tools they aren't familiar with. You may find the little gem that you never knew you needed.

Yes it will definitely push the site to [glow=red,2,300]popularity[/glow] peak.... Many of the Tools, the site recommends, could be found in the Backtrack 3 beta... yet waiting for the Final version to be released.

Its awesom that the Backtrack guys are continously putting things together

On the issue of tools, I notice that Nessus is #1 now... and is no longer free. I was wondering what the current fav for non-pay to play was for vuln scanner. I was looking at a nessus 2.2 fork named Open VAS that looked decent, but has anyone had any real world experience with it? Or does anyone have any suggestions of other options?

Yeah, I read that write up myself. I have been perusing the papers on the project, and downloaded all the files which I will be installing on my debian server at home tonight to dork around with. I just haven't heard a lot about any other really viable options yet though personally.